Please tell me you’ve asked your significant other to come with you to hunt so she could period pee in a scrape.
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When do you go to plan b?
- Thread starter 131north
- Start date
Please tell me you’ve asked your significant other to come with you to hunt so she could period pee in a scrape.
Hahaha. Yup my hunting habit/obsession turns my wife on more than anything!
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- Jun 28, 2019
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I never kiss 'en tell!!!
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- Jan 6, 2020
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Holy &*%$ that went off the rails quickly. I almost sent a link to this thread to my hunting buddy to help in my efforts to get him out moving more instead of hunting the same old areas. Sure glad I didn't do that. I think I'll just give him the Clif's Notes version. Minus the urination, menstruation, and defecation, of course.
131north
Well-Known Member
Well, maybe send it anyway... The overall theme is getting out of your comfort zone!
I shoulda pushed more tonight. In the back of my mind I wanted to stay on my feet, but as light waned I just had to hold up and "see what happens". Had I pushed ahead that last 400 yards or so I would have crossed paths with a buck in daylight instead of the dark.
Question for the pros: You can smell a buck, right? I walked over to where that buck crossed my path and man it smelled "rutty". Might have also been a scrape there, I didn't have my headlight on. Hoping that wasn't my imagination, or after reading more posts...worse.
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I took the thread to heart on Sunday. I had setup a pre-set over an active scrape line on Friday night so I could have somewhere to go to in the dark Sunday morning. By 10am I decided I had enough sitting and hoping so I got down and started walking. I kept seeing deer out near the road at night and On-X confirmed my suspicion that there were food plots on the section of private land across the road. So I started walking and looking for trails heading toward the food. Found some heavy trails with fresh poop. Found some more. Side note, saltier than I expected. I should have set up then and there but it was 1am and I hadn't eaten and had no food with me and water was gone so I marked the location and went and got lunch. On the way back in I bumped deer out of the very area I had marked. Learning. Slowly, but learning.
ImThere
Well-Known Member
131north
Well-Known Member
I so know the feeling! This thread has been helpful to expell the "I've only got x more time so I better hunt" thought from my head, although I am probably only 60% there. I think what I am learning is that on public 20 minutes in a good spot is worth more than 2 hours in a bad one.
tailgunner
Well-Known Member
I cross a ridge to get to spots I like .and every time I walk the road in I swear there are deer watching me.found a buck bed 30 yards above the road where it could see any one or thing on the grassy road.found a trail below the road with buck tracks and crap.been walking past this spot with an eery feeling for 10 years
Was thinking about this thread on a patch of public yesterday, had in my mind where I was going to set up, but the sign had dried up a bit since my last check so I kept pushing in very slowly until I found some tracks that looked to be does heading to adjacent bedding that morning. As I was setting up on the ground three of them busted me walking out just as predicted. Eventually they calmed down enough to get to 10 yards, but got my wind as I was drawing. Highly unlikely I would’ve been close if I picked spot A with lots of sign but nothing screaming “today”
I spent an hour sneaking in to spot that had several scrapes and tons of rubs I found last week. None of the scrapes were fresh. Because of this thread, I kept going another mile. Never found anything that looked good for this evening sit, although not exactly sure what that is anyway. I did about a 3.5 mile loop with summit climber and bailed out. Im never going back to that area again.
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Did the same thing yesterday. Went into an area that a buddy suggested and didn’t find crap for sign. I got back in my truck and drove to the opposite end with less than an hour of shooting light left and just started walking edges. Bumped into 4 separate does and 2 really nice bucks. No shot opportunities but learned where the deer were. The hard part for me is to not feel defeated when I don’t set up. I shouldn’t, I’ve still learned a lot even if it’s simply where the deer are not.
Empostarr
Well-Known Member
Thats the hardest part to get over. I feel like if I'm going out, I NEED to end up in a tree or sitting somewhere. But we don't have to. I'd rather walk around scouting and possibly locating deer than spend that time sitting in a spot just because I feel a need to.
Haha it’s like a whole lifestyle change.
131north
Well-Known Member
Made some progress on this morning's hunt. Had scouted the point of a ridge where I had seen deer cross a saddle. Couldn't sleep last night, got a late start, was already becoming light as I approached the area. The wind was perfect for my approach. Figured hanging sticks and getting in a tree would be too noisy, too slow, and too much movement, so I figured out the paths of travel from kicked up leaves in the early light, and tucked up into a deadfall, using my predator platform as a seat to get a better viewpoint of the military crest. Just as I'd seen prior and hoped, at about 8:30, does, fawns and at least one yearling buck poured onto the point. I counted about 9 deer, with several under 25 yards. They looked around and down the ridge for danger, but I was already among them. No arrows released today, but felt like a productive hunt because I just made it work. Probably would have been busted setting up had I been hell bent on getting in a tree and not switched it up on the fly. Progress!
WestGoesEast
New Member
I'll pile on this a little, all of this is in my very fallible opinion.
All the pre-season sign is irrelevant after the first week or so of season on public land, and you are better off looking for habitat features, and hard to reach places. Pressure trumps just about everything else on public land. I am always going to different areas, usually I am executing plan X or Y as plans have to change on public, my strategy now is to look for terrain features more than anything.
For me its all about pinch points. I try to find obvious ones that are only water accessible on public land, if I can canoe in on the right wind and immediately get in a tree all the better. Even if I have to paddle a mile or more, and often in the dark, it keeps the a lot of other hunters away.
Those pinch points often don't have scrapes or scat as the deer are cruising between areas, so hunters pass them by even if they can get into those areas, because they are looking for the "fresh" sign. Those pinch points have trails that get walked on a lot, and can be hard to identify until the snow gives them away. I really pay attention to the wind and make sure I have a clearing or feature a deer won't cross on my downwind side.
I killed two bucks this year, one in MN, then a week later in WI, site unseen areas, but knew the landscape features to look for, paddled in, got up in my tree and am tagged out. I usually mark a bunch of pinch points in a target 25 mile area. Because I often go in blind, some are tougher to get to than I thought, so I will switch up the plan, or I get into the woods and its gonna be loud moving through, I may move onto the next pinch point I identified.
Both my bucks came in calm and cruising to other points, not even looking up in the trees because its not a place they have regular encounters. Plus pinch points are by nature narrow, so the deer can see everything, and feel like they can smell everything as well, until I send an arrow right through them.
All the pre-season sign is irrelevant after the first week or so of season on public land, and you are better off looking for habitat features, and hard to reach places. Pressure trumps just about everything else on public land. I am always going to different areas, usually I am executing plan X or Y as plans have to change on public, my strategy now is to look for terrain features more than anything.
For me its all about pinch points. I try to find obvious ones that are only water accessible on public land, if I can canoe in on the right wind and immediately get in a tree all the better. Even if I have to paddle a mile or more, and often in the dark, it keeps the a lot of other hunters away.
Those pinch points often don't have scrapes or scat as the deer are cruising between areas, so hunters pass them by even if they can get into those areas, because they are looking for the "fresh" sign. Those pinch points have trails that get walked on a lot, and can be hard to identify until the snow gives them away. I really pay attention to the wind and make sure I have a clearing or feature a deer won't cross on my downwind side.
I killed two bucks this year, one in MN, then a week later in WI, site unseen areas, but knew the landscape features to look for, paddled in, got up in my tree and am tagged out. I usually mark a bunch of pinch points in a target 25 mile area. Because I often go in blind, some are tougher to get to than I thought, so I will switch up the plan, or I get into the woods and its gonna be loud moving through, I may move onto the next pinch point I identified.
Both my bucks came in calm and cruising to other points, not even looking up in the trees because its not a place they have regular encounters. Plus pinch points are by nature narrow, so the deer can see everything, and feel like they can smell everything as well, until I send an arrow right through them.
Can attest personally to the fact that it doesn't always work! Lol. But on a more serious note I need to reread this thread every night before I go out. I've spent waaaay too many sits having climbed the wrong tree and not wanting to get down because I'll spook deer... That aren't there
tailgunner
Well-Known Member
I agree with west.preseason scouting is for fun. First day and second week are so much different due to presure.not only can spots get blown out by presure.but log roads close randomly.you can waist your morning going somewhere and the gate is locked.need another of backup spots.and its a must to use terain when going in blind.pinch points out here typically consist of canyon top headwater crossings .canyon bottom creek crossings.The side of rock cliff faces.and saddles between ridges.timber harvest tree lines rule all of these hubs.alot of the woods have no pinch points.you will see no sign for half a mile then one spot has hammered set of trails.then nothing for a mile.above town 5 people a day including myself walk right past all the deer close to the gate.